Letters to the editor - 11/13/03

Politicians are already fingerpointing ­­ trying to lay blame
for the October firestorms that ravaged Southern California.
Somebody must have done something wrong. Find the culprits and hang
them out to dry.

But what if there is no one to blame ­­ except the forces of
nature, which we have no idea how to control, and man, who is the
insensitive and careless encroacher upon the environment?

To think that any single act could have prevented the
conflagration is rhetorical because it was, simply stated,
California's time to burn. We have paid the price because of our
own indulgences.

Such disasters will happen again and again until we learn how to
manage the forests and the wild lands, and to create a safe
environment for ourselves.

Don't blame the firefighters. Remember, they only react to what
other men have created.

KEN MUNSON

Fallbrook

We are taxed enough to fight fires

Ron Roberts, one of the San Diego County supervisors, is
proposing that all property owners pay an extra $25 to be added to
tax bills to pay for a fleet of choppers to fight fires. No way,
Mr. Roberts. Back in the early 1990s, after the Los Angeles, Orange
County-area fires, Proposition 172 was passed to support fire
departments.

KOGO radio disclosed that our supervisors have received some
$1.2 billion so far from this proposition, and some $191 million or
so this year.

Not one penny has ever been used for fire districts in this
county. The spin being put on by these supervisors is that they do
not have a country fire department. But the truth is that they can
give this money to all fire districts.

If I lost my home and/or had relatives killed during this recent
fire, I would be leading a recall of all these supervisors. It's
time to get real, Supervisors, no more tax money. Use the millions
you receive to fund the fire departments.

MILFORD L. FOLEY

Oceanside

Land-use decisions result in deadly fires

In the midst of the worst calamity in San Diego County history,
Bill Horn was unable to put politics aside and threw one more low
blow at Gov. Gray Davis.

If he reads the column by Van K. Collinsworth in the Oct. 29
paper, all he has to do is look in the mirror to discover who is as
guilty as anyone in creating the hazardous fire conditions that
exist here today. Every time he has overruled professionals'
recommendations and sided with greedy developers, who buy and pay
for his elections, and approved risky land-use decisions, it has
been tantamount to pouring gasoline on today's fires.

The fires are barely out and already people are determined to
rebuild. Are they going to be allowed to re-create the tinder box
that went up in ashes or are they going to be required to build
more fire-resistant communities?

Ironic that the North County Times editorialized against the
SOFAR proposition on the day that the Cedar fire exploded.
Rejecting that measure on March 2, 2004, will ensure that the next
big fire (when, not if) will destroy even more homes than this
one.

JOHN-ERIK NILSSON

Vista

NCT failed in coverage of Old fire

As residents of North County San Diego and property owners in
Big Bear Lake, we were extremely frustrated by the lack of
reporting on the Old fire by the North County Times.

Each morning, as we picked up our newspaper hoping to get
up-to-the-minute news of the Old fire, we were consistently
disappointed. Big Bear is only 100 miles from North County, yet,
based on the sparse coverage given by your paper, it would appear
to be in another state.

ANN SKALKY

Fallbrook

Newspaper shows overt racial bias

Earlier this summer two Southland police officers were shot to
death at point-blank range (two of over 13 million illegals, mainly
Mexican) in the course of routine traffic stops. Little
investigative coverage has been given these most disturbing and
outrageous crimes.

Contrast this with the North County Times' nonstop (for many
weeks) front-page coverage two years ago of some teenage boys that
had an altercation with a group of illegal Mexicans living in our
canyons. Two slain officers, minimal coverage. Racist coverage by
the NCT? Absolutely!

The largest and costliest fire disaster in our state's history
(over 290,000 acres and scores of homes gone, many dead and
thousands of lives shattered forever), the Cedars fire, was started
by one Sergio Martinez. Why do we not have investigative coverage
of Mr. Martinez's cataclysmic crime? This paper goes on and on
about other inconsequential issues, why not Martinez? Again, racist
coverage.

For speaking the truth, the self-righteous hypocrites would call
you bigot or racist to try to intimidate you. Folks, the
socioeconomic costs of illegal immigration are growing
exponentially. Wake up.

GARY WALKER

Escondido

Begrudging grocery workers is
self-destructive

Several writers have already accused the grocery workers of
greed. One, Edith van Kirk (Nov. 1) begrudged these hardworking
citizens for having medical benefits better than her own. This is
selfish and shortsighted on her part. How does it benefit Edith to
drag down workers to her own level?

Would it not be better if her benefits are raised to the level
of the grocer employees? Or, wouldn't it be better still if all of
us received the same medical benefits as Rep. Darrell Issa, Duncan
Hunter and Randy Cunningham, who sponge off all us taxpayers? Ms.
van Kirk and all of us citizens are as deserving of good health
care as these public servants.

What is required is universal health care for all citizens, as
proposed by at least four of the Democratic candidates for
president, including Gov. Howard Dean, Congressmen Dennis Kucinich
and Dick Gephardt, and Sen. John Kerry. Universal health care is
certainly affordable for a nation that can squander over $200
billion on an unnecessary and endless war.

In pulling down others we all suffer. All Americans working for
the common good will enable us to do what Canada is already doing
for its citizens.

J. HOWARD CREWS

Fallbrook

Both sides are fighting the wrong battle

Supermarket employees want stores to continue to pay for their
health insurance. The stores want the employees to pay for a good
part of it. So, they are in a nasty fight. But they are fighting
the wrong battle. Instead of trying to shift the burden to each
other, they should be united in the real fight, which is to get
universal, single-payer health-care insurance in our country.

It defies common sense to waste untold billions of dollars every
year on a health-care delivery system that does not deliver decent
care. Abuse, waste and fraud are a continuous drain on our wealth.
And the obscene profits of the drug producers is unconscionable.
Every year, more citizens are being excluded from the
health-insurance system. There are now 40-plus million Americans
who have not one nickel of insurance. And, the number is
growing.

To the labor unions and the corporatists the message is this:
Stop being buttheads and start doing the right thing.

PAT MCDONALD

Oceanside

Strike won't be a win for grocery clerks

I have been a union member and a manager in a union shop. Over
the last four decades, I have concluded that strikes seldom improve
the income of the strikers over the offer made by the employer. The
current grocery clerk strike proves this to be true.

Grocery clerks are striking over a $15-a-week contribution
toward their health-care premiums ($780 per year) and are
protesting the initiation of a two-tiered pay agreement that would
pay new hires a scale lower than current employees. The second of
the two issues is more important to union leaders than to the rank
and file, given that it has no apparent impact on current
employees.

If I were a grocery clerk I could not vote to remain on strike
because I'd be dollars behind for every day I refuse to work.

It would seem to me that the current strike is a losing
proposition for the strikers. They will never make up the wages
lost during the strike, and every strike day builds a work force of
trained workers that can do their jobs. It may be that, one day,
when the strikers say they are willing to go back to work, their
positions will be filled by people who think that $15-per-week
health care is a pretty good deal.

JOE HOENIGMAN

Carlsbad

U.S. is constantly at war

Evidently Mr. Skyler Reidy (Letters, Oct. 21) isn't aware that
in 1993 Ellen C. Collier, specialist in U.S. Foreign Policy,
Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division Washington, D.C.,
Congressional Research Service, wrote a report (entered into the
Library of Congress) pointing out that at that time the United
States have been involved in 234 instances of the use of our troops
abroad, from 1798 to 1993.

Our troops were constantly involved in foreign situations during
that time ­­ fortunately, not all involved combat. Most of them
were to protect American interests. That usually meant American
commercial interests. Since this report, we have not had a year
without our troops being involved somewhere in the world,

One of the lesser-known was our undeclared naval war with France
(1798-1800). This was how we repaid them for their help in winning
our independence from Great Britain.

What about 1893 when Marines landed in Hawaii, ostensibly to
protect American lives and property, but many believed to promote a
provisional government under Sanford B. Dole? That was when we
deposed the Hawaiian queen by force, even though Hawaii had no
military forces, after she had granted Dole and Spreckels
considerable land for their crops.

MIMI ROHWER

San Marcos

A solution to the illegal problem

I have a solution to this amnesty for illegals problem that
seems to be clogging all levels of government for the last year. I
will agree with the border-hopper advocates groups on this matter.
I agree with amnesty only to apply for a green card, which I would
instruct the Department of Homeland Security to expedite quickly.
While waiting for processing, a temporary visa is issued.

After six months, anyone who fails to apply for their green card
is in violation of the amnesty and will be deported immediately, no
excuses.

Conditions of this amnesty are as follows. They must learn
English and become citizens within five years or they will be in
violation of the amnesty and risk immediate deportation. Children
of illegal aliens by the age of 18 must become citizens or risk
being deported.

This is a fair way to give all these illegal aliens a second
chance to respect our laws and do the right thing. This will give
them the rights and benefits that everyone in America receives,
like the privilege to drive, work and raise their families. Does
this make sense? Not to the politicians, all they want to do is
pander and disregard our laws.

RAY CARNEY

Fallbrook

We need more geography in school, not less

Lawrence Osen raised an important educational issue in his
struggle to keep the geography requirement in the curriculum at San
Marcos Unified School District ("Keep geography in our curriculum,"
Nov. 3).

Poor planning and decision-making in the city and county of San
Diego contributed directly to the massive scale of the tragedy of
the recent fires, and that poor public management was directly a
result of geographical ignorance among our elected officials and
the public at large. Such lack of geographical understanding
produces lousy decision making at all levels of problems, from
local to national to international.

Geography is about how the world works differently from place to
place. It shows us how knowing where something is can provide the
key to knowing what to do about it. It informs us that success in
practically all endeavors today depends on recognizing that
far-flung places across this world are increasingly
interconnected.

Every one of us desperately needs more geography education, not
less. If the school board in San Marcos eliminates the geography
requirement in the curriculum, then no matter what they choose to
replace it with, the students and the community will be worse off
for it.

HERSCHEL STERN

Encinitas

Both parties use Iraq for their own gain

Can a government of the people, by the people and for the people
long endure after its politicians learn that they don't have to
fool all the people all the time, they only have to fool 51 percent
of the voters at election time?

So far I have not seen an honest attempt by either party to
explain why we are in a war with Iraq, or how we are going to get
out. For over a year both parties have been trying to use Iraq to
hurt the other.

Maybe they should spend more time trying to resolve the problems
in Iraq instead of exaggerating them, or pretending that they don't
exist.

By the way, how many of you believe that Iraq will have a true,
popularly elected government in 10 years? I hope they do, but I
don't think it will happen.

DAVID W. OSTERBERG

Escondido

Band boosters give thanks

The Fallbrook Marching Warrior Band Boosters would like to thank
East Brothers, Re-Max United Realtors, Coldwell Banker and Dr.
Daniel Flores, DDS, all businesses located in Fallbrook, for
sponsoring the Marching Warrior's upcoming state championship
competition in Fresno.

Any other businesses wishing to contribute to this worthy cause
should contact Anita Roalf at (760) 731-9031.

PHIL LEONELLI

Marching Warrior Band Boosters

Fallbrook

Abortion ban shows Bush, U.S. are moral

I am in complete 100 percent support of President Bush signing
into law the ban on partial-birth abortion. This act sends a clear
message to all people that the United States respects all life and
is a moral country. We have to keep our standards as high as our
forefathers envisioned and formed our country under the laws of God
almighty.

I am very pleased with President Bush and his character as a man
and a leader of the best country in the world. He is keeping his
word and I will definitely support President Bush again.

God bless America.

WENDY GRECO

Lake Elsinore

Band, music critical to education

I am writing on behalf of the Vail Ranch Middle School Band
boosters. Many parents do not realize that the school board
eliminated the elementary band programs this year. This has a
severe impact on the rest of the music programs, since it has a
domino effect. The students who come into middle school next year
will now have to spend a year learning how to play their
instruments, thereby decreasing the amount of students who can play
in the other ensembles by 33 percent. This also impacts the quality
of the high school programs, since future students will be a year
behind from what students can currently accomplish.

Temecula has had a long tradition of providing a well-rounded
education, however we seem to be slipping back to where we were in
the 1980s, when budget cuts forced fine arts education into the
background. Band students learn more than how to play an
instrument. The program exposes them to the arts, teaches
mathematics, teamwork, time management and more. In addition,
having a 4.0 GPA does not necessarily get a student into the more
competitive universities anymore. Extra activities, such as band,
are what make students competitive.

There is a way to re-establish the music program for less than
the district reportedly saved by cutting band. This will be
outlined in a letter that band parents will be distributing in the
community. If this issue concerns you, please help us with this
effort by contacting the school board.

PAULA RADOSEVICH

Temecula

A new era dawns in Lake Elsinore

We did not get everything we were hoping for, but enough where
residents in this city, I am confident, will soon see a marked
improvement. For the first time in more than 20 years, we will see
a turnaround at City Hall, opening it to a real service for the
public.

Scheduled town hall meetings will give the residents an
opportunity to vent their concerns and grievances. After all, how
will a public servant do a well-balanced plan in the best interest
of this city, without giving all the residents a chance to be heard
at least periodically.

Personally, I want to thank all the voters for having the
confidence in me to vote as I suggested. I will continue to
volunteer my service in the ways that I may contribute for a better
government and Lake Elsinore. Thanks very much.